Monthly Archives: September 2012

There’s a type of remedy which is not based on substance (such as from nutrition or even a homeopathic remedy), but rather on essence. The realm of art and music provide a vast array of potential essence remedies, once we begin to catalogue the “objective feeling” of each piece. The objective feeling is separate from our individual subjective reactions to a piece, which may or may not even have been a conscious decision of the artist. The genius of an artist or any creator taps into this realm, whether at a conscious or unconscious level.

An appreciation of these objective feelings leads us to be able to prescribe art or music as a remedy for a patient, as appropriate for a given life issue or conflict they are working through within themselves. At another level, this is the same reason why certain relationships in our life have a therapeutic effect, and why we organically drop others as we unfold our health.

This idea can be applied at a number of levels. For example, you can look at the objective feeling of living in a given country, culture, or language, and what the therapeutic effect is on someone. This is the reason why some people relocate to an entirely different part of the world, when they feel a strong draw to a very different feeling from where they are currently living. Or at a smaller level, the experience which people have when they travel, and essentially expose themselves to the essence or state of mind of the place they are passing through.

The sentient soul phase, which occurs from about age 21 to age 28, is the time when the child has grown up, and has a natural impulse to leave the nest of the family home, and find their own place in the world. Whether this includes experimenting with different world views, religions, or philosophies, there is a form of travelling through different states of mind which are different from the parents. All of these experiences generally work as a remedy to help the child sever their identity from their families, and not just be a “chip off the old block”.

Another way of looking at this, is through the concept of ‘occurents’, which has to do with the events and experiences which happen to you. Whether we are directing the process consciously, or not, and whether we like it, or not, our occurents are drawn towards us as a function of our state of mind, and what is calling out to be transformed, or at least confronted. Accidents, chance encounters, and so on, are examples of occurents, which are yet another form of remedies we receive in terms of essence rather than substance.

I’ve been enjoying listening to narrated audio books, which have re-connected me back to a love for literature which I generally don’t have time to read amongst all the non-fiction studies I do. I recently listened to the novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being, which is a book I had read a number of years ago, but now was able to see through a Heilkunst lens.

The first striking Heilkunst element of this novel is the relationship between the two primary characters, as expressed through their genotypes – Tomas, the perfect image of Lycopodium, and Tereza as a Pulsatilla. Tomas is the quintessential womanizer, who cannot understand why society has artificially joined together the concepts of love and sex. His scalpel-sharp intellect neatly cleaves these two concepts from each other, allowing them to exist independently of each other in his life. Against his own principles, he does fall in love with Tereza, yet he cannot stop himself from having as many love affairs as possible, which torments Tereza throughout their relationship. One of the challenges of the Pulsatilla constitution is that they may hold on to a relationship even past the point where they should.

The novel is very well written, and addresses a number of themes, especially related to the aftermath in the Czech society after the Soviet invasion of 1968. To live under such a controlled society brings out some of the worst in some of the characters, and the author uses that as a central meditation for understanding what their inner struggles are.

Under any form of constraining government, anyones character structure will be pushed into further conflict within itself, and a range of unhealthy behaviours will result. Tomas loses his career as a surgeon out of refusing to rescind an article he published in a newspaper which was critical of the regime, and lives out the remainder of his life as a window washer, and then as a farm hand. In terms of his character structure, he is a Phallic Narcissistic type, which means that he is perpetually driven to try to obtain a genital release with “anything in a skirt”, but the discharge is never complete, and the manic cycle perpetuates.

Film and literature often provide some of the best living images of particular constitutional types, as well as character types. The nature of good art is that it reaches into the truth of life, and presents it in condensed, easy-to-digest forms. Which film or literature characters have cemented into your mind as such clear examples?

In principle, every disease, and every imbalance is curable — yet why is it that some cases seem to get stuck, or reach a permanent plateau?

Some of the blockages to cure include:

An insufficient capacity in the practitioner to diagnosis the deeper issues of the patient. This is related to the fact that the act of diagnosis is itself dependent on the degree of health of the practitioner, and that they cannot help to bring a patient to a greater level of health than they themselves have obtained.

An insufficient knowledge of practical therapeutics related to the specific needs of the case. It can happen that while the diagnosis is correct, the specific therapeutic application is either unknown, at least to the degree required to be implemented. In principle, a true diagnosis will always reveal the FORM of the remedy needed, but its content (ie specific details) may not yet be known.

The patient is holding themselves back, whether at the conscious or unconscious level, either out of fear of moving forward, or due to some other attachment that they haven’t let go of yet. There are many examples of patients coming to realize at some point how they actually use their illness to manipulate the people around them, towards various ends. The issue of Münchausen syndrome is an example of this, where a parent unconsciously holds their child in a state of compromised health, in order that they can maintain their role of “caretaker”, or “martyr” and all the secondary benefits derived from being perceived this way.

The unwillingness of the patient to take certain steps in their life which are necessary to reach their health goals. The desire to be well, in this case, is overshadowed by the inertia of disease, and creates a type of “bootstrap” problem for the patient to create a positive momentum. It is amazing to see, sometimes, how patients cling to habits or relationships which are literally killing them. The force of disease can be rooted quite deeply, and produce such irrational forms of behaviour.

The good news, is that the general evolution of the science of Heilkunst tends to keep pace with the evolution of human consciousness, and the specific issues and blockages which come up are just representations of where our current growth opportunity is (either at the level of the individual practitioner, or the field of Heilkunst as a whole). The key to working through these moments, always, is to revert back to the basics of the scientific method itself, and apply the universal principles to whatever is appearing. The same principle applies to resonant relationships, which are due on a routine basis to hit some form of turbulence, while a new capacity of the relationship is being born.

There are two “talent show” videos which have recently been brought to my attention, which have come together in my mind as a polaric example of what I’ve been talking about in recent blogs on the function and purpose of love. On one axis, I’ve explored the function of love as it expresses through each of our four bodies, and today I want to look at our other axis, where we are divided into an upper being and nether being. These two beings are like the two people who assume the front and rear positions in a horse costume, and the healthier we are, the more these two beings are co-ordinated in their activities.

The first video is a representation of how our love function comes through our nether being. The singer named Panda who auditioned for the American version of X-factor is an example of someone with a pure, raw talent for singing, which seems to simply erupt from her without the benefit any formal training. As you’ll see in this video, her talent and love is to perform and share this raw singing power, which she directs through her expressed love for Simon, one of the show’s judges. Most remarkably, she has just “bust herself out” of the hospital, where she was being treated for pneumonia, where she heads straight back to in an ambulance after her audition. Being able to sing so powerfully during such a lung condition is a grand illustration of how our love function drives us to overcome any obstacle.

Taking a look at the polar complement to this piece, is a young Irish lad on the equivalent show from the UK, called ‘Britain’s Got Talent”, in singing a love song which he wrote. What the judges can tease out of him before he sings is that this is a song he wrote for someone, but for whom he hasn’t yet had the courage to sing it to. More of an ideal, or romantic love is felt here, which you’ll get a strong sense of in this clip.

Your mission is to digest and internalize the form of love function as presented by each of these singers, and then to find where in yourself you have the root capacity for each of these forms of love. When you have integrated the two sides together, you’ll know that your life is very much functioning through your objective desire function, and breaking through all obstacles on the way to unfolding it.

I recently outlined how our love function metamorphoses up through our four bodies, and how this is a key factor for assessing where we are in our health. Looking at the love function of agape, which relates to our ontic organization, one of the challenges which we typically have to face over and over through life is of “letting go”.

One area where we especially trip over this challenge is in our role as parents. Much is demanded of a parent, and much is generally given to meet these demands. The challenge of letting go comes up particularly to the degree that we hold the belief that we need to be in charge of our child’s destiny. That’s one thing we definitely don’t have dominion over, but this often does not translate fully into the mind of the parent, who mistakes subjective love for this higher form of agape love, which requires letting go.

I remember at various points when my step-kids were quite young in arriving at these points of letting go, as I realized that their talents and interests would not and should not be the same as mine. Parenting is not about creating a “chip off the old block” (which is a world without ontic or individuality), but more like functioning as a platform from which the child can take off into their own unfolding.

I’ve seen many variations of this challenge for parents letting go in the clinic, including seeing how parents and their children suffer from their own highly controlling behaviours, or when they otherwise feel that their child is not properly “conforming” to the outer expectations of school or society. This challenge will grow larger, as we continue to develop the capacity of our individuality through developing this ontic organization.

I was recently on Dr. Dena Churchill‘s radio program with a panel of different experts talking about vaccination, and what the options are for parents who may be deciding to partially or completely avoid vaccinating their children.

Dr. Dena Churchill

Here was the original description which Dr. Dena posted with the show:

Are vaccines safe and effective? Is vaccination an informed choice? Where do we find information to know the warning signs of a vaccine reaction and risks?

The safety and efficacy of vaccinations is a controversial topic. Depending on who you talk to they are either praised and celebrated for wiping out epidemics or blamed for vaccination reactions and disabilities. Where is the truth in these extreme ranges of opinions? Which vaccinations carry the most risk? Why would the public challenge vaccination? Who ultimately benefits?

This show is not intended as medical advice. As with any medical procedure involving a child, parents should gather all available information and discuss the decision of whether or not to vaccinate with one or more doctors and with consideration for the individual laws of your province, state and country. Our intention in this segment is simply to illustrate that vaccination is with the most health conscious parents an informed choice and to share with you the resources, information and options.

Following the cycle of chronic miasms in terms of the seasons of the year, we now come back around to the original chronic miasm which is linked to the Autumnal Equinox. Psora, which comes from the same root word as ‘psoriasis’, is the beginning of treating the complete cycle of eight chronic miasms. There are eight, as there are two per season. This first miasm in treatment corresponds to the oldest, or original chronic miasm in human history. As such, you can imagine that it’s symptoms relate back to an original loss of health, and the beginnings of a weakened immune system.

The symptom picture of Psora is related to our most superficial organs or functions. The skin is primarily affected, with all forms of rashes or general conditions such as eczema. Other outer aspects of our immune system are affected, as we see in cases of simple head colds or coughs — irritation of the mucous membranes and other first defences of the immune system are included here.

All Psora symptoms are related fundamentally to an underlying condition of dehydration and dryness at all levels — dryness of our cells and their basic functions impaired; also dryness of our minds, in terms of our modern predominance of intellect over feeling. Also, the fundamental state of mind of Psora relates to this theme of dryness, in that the theme is of ‘lack’ — lack of energy, lack of time, lack of money, or lack of love, etc. If you observe the frantic energy of animals in the fall as they are gathering their food stores for the winter, you’ll see an example of this feeling of lack, and behaviour based on fear for future survival.

Many issues presenting at the clinic level have at least some root back into this miasm. Many complaints of a lack of energy, as well as constant catching of colds will be related. Seasonal allergies related to the fall are very much rooted in this miasm. In fact, my own lifelong suffering of hay fever was completely eliminated when I was treated for this miasm. Physically, the patient suffering from Psora will tend to be quite chilly, and have a hard time warming up. The classic expression of this in the old materia medicas referrered to those who wear their fur hats in the middle of the summer. Along with the skin symptoms comes much itchiness, especially driving the patient mad when they get into bed. With or without itchiness, there may still be a lot of restless sleep.

Mentally and emotionally, Psora is characterized by much anxiety and restlessness. More deeply, a feeling of having been forsaken may become apparent.

What else can be done to ensure a child’s healthy immune system? (ie the difference between specific and general immunity).

The unfortunate training for patients to expect a “magic bullet” of immunity has been one of the worst side effects of the vaccination program. While developing a range of specific immunity factors is important, the general immune system is much more important, and has a tendency to be ignored when so much emphasis is placed on acquiring specific immunity through vaccines. The full range of factors related to diet, lifestyle, and everything which takes a sustained effort on the part of the family is what is required for a strong general immunity. In the long run, it is the more valuable side of immunity to work on, as it is what protects us even in the face of “brand new” pathogens which have never been experienced before.

How do you go about treating a condition such as autism?

This is a complex topic, but a basic key to this answer has to do with understanding the difference between a “condition label”, versus a true disease diagnosis. The condition label of “autism” may have a certain general utility in identifying the general characteristics of such a broad-ranging phenomenon, but it does virtually nothing in understanding what is the unique treatment plan needed in each individual case. As I often say, the condition label hides a lot more than it reveals, and if not careful, the practitioner may be tempted to try more a more generic treatment plan out of lack of time or energy to properly investigate the unique case in front of them.

How does Heilkunst look at the genetic tendency to disease in a given child, in order to assess how they might react to a conventional vaccine?

In parallel with considering the core concept of resonance, the factor of the genetic inheritance of diseases in the family tree needs to be acknowledged. The fact that some children have a strong family history of the ‘Sycotic’ miasm (related to conditions such as heart disease and stroke in the family history, for example), predisposes them to have a greater likelihood for having a stronger reaction to a vaccine. When considering the family health history of a given child, I will explain this to parents where there is such a strong Sycotic history in their family, and the greater likelihood that their child would suffer an adverse reaction to a conventional vaccine.

What are the different options you offer to parents who are either not vaccinating their child, or using a modified schedule?

The primary goal is always to provide the parents as much education as they need in order to feel comfortable with making a decision truly based on “informed consent”, and from their own sense of comfort and inner authority. Whether they decide to follow most of the recommended vaccine schedule, a modified version, or none at all, I explain to them the options they can consider along the way. Contextualizing all of the options in terms of the deeper underlying principles helps considerably in terms of working from an understandable framework, rather than the shifting sands of empiricism or opinion.

For any vaccines which they do decide to have for their child, I explain to them how we can use the ‘isodes’ (potentized remedies made from the vaccine material itself) given both before and after the vaccine, in order to mitigate and shock or toxicity from the vaccine, while still receiving any benefit they would have received from it.

For parents who are skipping some or all of the standard vaccine schedule, I offer to help them design a suitable schedule of homeopathic immunization (technically termed ‘homoprophylaxis’), which have proven to be highly safe and effective.

How does homeopathic immunization work?

While the concept of homeopathic immunization is identical to conventional vaccination, the method is radically different. Since the homeopathic method is administered with potentized remedies made from the pathogen in question, they work purely on the basis of resonance, rather than the sledgehammer approach of the standard vaccine dosage. This means, that if and when a child is resonating with a given pathogen, the nosode will bring out a positive healing response in the child, essentially having a milder form of the disease. This gives them the benefit they would have received from the natural infection, without the risk of strong side effects of either the natural disease, or its vaccine counterpart. If the child has no resonance for a given pathogen, perhaps if they may have already had a mild case of it, then the remedy will simply pass through them without causing and reaction, and neither harm nor benefit will be done. This goes hand-in-hand with the understanding that childhood infection actually has a positive purpose and benefit, and a more useful approach is to ask how and when to deliver a safe dose for the maximum benefit, rather than taking a suppressive approach which robs the child of the growth spurt and other positive benefits they are due for from the disease in question.

A movie that I refer to often is The Matrix (1999), when Im talking with patients about their journey through Heilkunst treatment. It is truly a multi-faceted work, which can be interpreted at many levels, and in fact has been by many reviewers. For the purposes of this blog, I just want to focus in on a few aspects which related more directly to the process of treatment, and how The Matrix illuminates some of the signposts along the way.

One of the key messages of the movie is of the quest for the self, as discovered by overcoming the false ego. The quest for health goes hand-in-hand with discovering the nature and purpose of our true self, as was pointed out by Dr. Hahnemann in his account of the purpose of health. It turns out that there are many obstacles along the way, and in fact, are a necessary part of making our own meaning of who we are.

One of the most famous scenes of the movie comes near the beginning, when Neo meets Morpheus for the first time, who gives him the choice of taking “the red pill, or the blue pill”. Choosing the red pill will allow him to see past the illusion and see reality for what it really is, while the blue pill will put him back into his own illusion, where he’d forget that any of this had happened, or that he’d made the choice. Cypher, a supporting character in the movie, at one point laments having taken the red pill, and wishes he could go back into the state of “ignorance is bliss” of the blue pill.

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Mu_8w6db5M]

In his discussion of disease, and all of the obstacles to health, Hahnemann refers to “inimical potences” as a kind of catch-all expression. The powers, forces, and energies which make up both us and the world, include these “inimical potences”, which seek to thwart us at every step along our path, and keep us from ascending into a full consciousness of our self. The artistic portrayal of this in the movie is embodied by the agents, who actually can take over any regular person as necessary in fulfilling their job, and trying to block any progress on part of the awakened humans.

Neo slowly comes to understand the advice he’s often given throughout the movie, which is to follow the voice of his gut rather than his brain. This goes hand-in-hand with his process of self-discovery, and unfolding what his true mission is in the world. His reluctance and doubt gradually gives way to knowledge.